TodayChambersburg Hospital receives high ratings
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Article RatingChambersburg Hospital is celebrating the high ratings the hospital and its doctors and staff received from HealthGrades.
HealthGrades, an independent healthcare rating organization headquartered in Colorado, issued the 10th annual “HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study” Wednesday and ranked Chambersburg Hospital best in Pennsylvania and among the top 5 percent in the United States for coronary interventional procedures (procedures at the cardiac catheterization laboratory, such as angioplasty).
Chambersburg Hospital is affiliated with Summit Health.
The hospital responds quickly to emergency cases, said Dr. Thomas Anderson, the vice president for medical affairs at Summit Health, said at a press conference Wednesday. Patients “receive intervention 54 minutes after arriving at our doors. The national benchmark is 90 minutes.”
Dr. Aylmer Tang and Dr. Arshad Safi of the Franklin County Heart Center are the cardiologists. Tang told reporters that the state-of-the-art equipment and the lack of “red tape to cut” has enabled the doctors to keep up with their field.
“We always try to keep ahead of the curve,” he said. The “cath lab” has been upgraded several times since 2004. Tang says the improvements have been good, even though “it can be painful when we have to deal with new things all the time.”
The cardiologists had about 1,200 cases and performed about 400 angioplasties in the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. The hospital does not perform open-heart surgery.
Safi credited “a lot of support from the Summit Health system” for providing the equipment and facilities the cardiology program needs. He also said the attitude of all the staff members is helpful. “Everyone is focused on patient care.”
Norman Epstein, the president and CEO of Summit Health, said levels of staffing at Chambersburg Hospital are “at a higher level” than at comparable institutions.
Chambersburg Hospital treats about 10,000 patients a year in the hospital.
Awards and rankings
Chambersburg Hospital received the HealthGrades Coronary Intervention Excellence Award and the HealthGrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award, which are given to “hospitals that perform in the Top 10 percent of the nation,” says the press release.
The hospital also performed well in a number of categories, including joint replacements, pulmonary care (treatment of pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and also treatment of sepsis and pancreatitis, with a total of 12 five-star ratings.
The ratings, which can be seen at www.healthgrades.com, use Medicare data to determine where hospitals are ranked on a scale of “poor” (1 star), “as expected” (three stars), or “best” (five stars). The ratings are for specific health issues, such as treatment for heart attacks or treatment of pneumonia.
A five-star rating represents a below-average death rate, says Epstein. The ratings on the site show results for Chambersburg Hospital and other area hospitals, including Carlisle Regional Medical Center, Holy Spirit Hospital, PinnacleHealth and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
HealthGrades says the ratings they develop from the Medicare statistics are similar to the ratings developed by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).
In the September 2007 Hospital Performance Report by PHC4 Chambersburg Hospital received a rating of “significantly lower than expected” for readmission rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (see below). Chambersburg had lower-than-expected mortality rates, readmissions and complications for patients with congestive heart failure, lower-than-expected complication rates for infectious pneumonia, and average ratings for heart attack-angioplasty/stent. The PHC4 report is also available online at www.phc4.org.
Lung diseases
Dr. Imtiaz Khurshid says his work is most satisfying “when the patient gets better.” In his practice, he sees patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) during office visits and also at the hospital. Even though COPD can’t be reversed, patients can have a better quality of life with treatment.
Khurshid says smoking is a factor in lung diseases such as COPD and lung cancer. Lung cancer is a particular problem because there aren’t obvious symptoms early in Stage 1 of the disease, and there is no routine screening currently recommended for lung cancer. Patients known to be at high risk for cancer can have a CT scan (sometimes called a CAT scan), but scans aren’t given routinely. He works closely with oncologists on lung cancer cases.
The hospital’s programs also received high marks for treating pneumonia and pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs). Khurshid says the staff members in the program “work closely with the emergency room” to intervene early to treat embolisms and to begin antibiotics promptly with pneumonia so patients recover.
The hospital also offers diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea as part of the pulmonary medical care programs.
The hospital was No. 9 in the top 10 hospitals in Pennsylvania for overall pulmonary services, according to HealthGrades.
Joint replacements
Anderson also discussed the hospital’s five-star ratings for joint replacement and total knee replacement.
“Chambersburg Hospital developed order sets several years ago,” he said. “These sets of standard orders, used by all orthopedic surgeons, outline the best care for patients, measure outcomes, and reduce variability and complications.”
The hospital staff performs about 300 knee replacements and 150 hip replacements a year.
